I’m so glad that you are here today to celebrate Mother’s Day; because there are some of you who have been going through some things that are tough. I want to talk to those of you this morning who have been dealing with some things that are challenging, you have been going through some things that if it hadn’t been for Jesus, you wouldn’t have been able to make it. You have experienced many trials, maybe suffered great loss, and yet you have survived and the Lord gave you a testimony.

I wonder how many of you have faced tough days, great difficulty, and you have had to fight through some days that honestly you weren’t sure you are going to make it?

Those of you who are mothers you may be able to relate to this quote from Barbara Walters, she said, “Motherhood is tough, if you just want a wonderful little creature to love, you can get a puppy.” Now, you didn’t know that when you were younger, they didn’t tell you that babies don’t stay babies, just like puppies don’t stay puppies. And in the same way, you didn’t understand that motherhood is a tough job.

In other words, to be a real mother, not just a woman who had a baby, but to be a real mother, you’ve got to be tough, unyielding, and persistent. Because when you accept that responsibility it is from the womb to the tomb. The call of a mother continues through dark days, storms, trials and tribulations. And so, a mother remains faithful, she keeps on loving, persevering even when it seems like a love is not working.

In our text this morning from the gospel of Luke, I want to consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, as we talk about the calling of motherhood. Because I believe Mary can teach us some powerful lessons that we need to understand. Let’s look at Luke chapter one, we are going to begin reading at verse twenty-six.

“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you" (Luke 1:26-28).

“Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:29-33, NIV).

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" (Luke 1:34).

“The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God... For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:35,37, NIV).

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her” (Luke 1:38, NIV).

Some people have suggested that parenting is a team effort, and in many ways, at different points, and at various times it certainly is. But I will never forget being in the delivery room with my wife for our first child. It was exciting because we had been preparing for this moment for nine months, and now we were finally going to have a baby. And so, we had the room ready, we had the car seat, we had the clothes and the diapers, and now we were finally going to have a baby.

However, as I was in the birthing room and the contractions began coming more rapidly and with greater intensity it quickly became apparent that we weren’t having a baby. My wife was having a baby! Now, I’m sure my presence was of some comfort, but the truth was that there was only one of us on the delivery bed. I tried to help, I tried to coach her breathing, I held her hand but it very quickly became obvious that she was the only one that was having a baby. I was unprepared for what was happening, I tried to be there for her, they talk about coaching, but motherhood is a very personal thing. Ultimately it was just her and our firstborn and I was just watching this event unfold.

The first thing that stands out to me in this passage as we meet Mary is that she is totally unprepared. She was a young Jewish girl, just barely mature, certainly not prepared for the responsibilities of motherhood in our culture today, but the Bible says,

“Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18, ESV).

And so, when Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she is favored and that she would bear a child, it was only natural that she would be greatly troubled.

Throughout history many have declared that blessedness favors those who are prepared. And so, from an early age the practice of preparing is connected to our upbringing and early education. For as Benjamin Franklin once said,

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

And so, beginning in elementary school we are promised the benefits of preparedness. In fact, the Scriptures themselves tell us,

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2, ESV).

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalms 1:3, ESV).

And so, our preparation is important, because it is those seasons of preparation, day and night, day after day, which play a significant role in our success and achievements. In fact, Louise Pasteur once said it this way,

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.”

And yet, even the youngest of us know that there are some things that you just can’t prepare for. There are some troubles, hardships, and experiences which no amount of preparation can suffice.

In our recent history as a nation, we experienced a long and painful season of unpreparedness due to the COVID virus. There was a lack of medical equipment and supplies, hospitals were overwhelmed, and we were caught unprepared. In other words, we were as prepared for COVID as Mary was to carry and raise the Savior of the world.

In fact, if there were an award given for unpreparedness at the time of God’s call there would be many runners-up, like Abraham, Moses, David, or Esther. But I think it is safe to say that Mary would have taken first prize considering the surprise of a pregnant virgin. Nothing could have prepared her for this, and she was greatly troubled, questioning how this could even be, before she willingly resigned herself to the call of motherhood saying,

"I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38, NIV).

And so, this young girl from a small obscure town called Nazareth carried the Messiah to full term, delivered him in Bethlehem, before she once again found herself struggling to grasp what was being said to her. This time it was from a man named Simeon who approached her when the time came for her and Joseph to present Jesus to the Lord in the temple. When Simeon saw Jesus, he took him up in his arms and praised God because he had been waiting for the Messiah. But then he said the strangest thing to Mary,

“Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also" (Luke 2:34-35, ESV).

Certainly, Mary was unprepared to hear such ominous words, such a threatening prediction, but it wasn’t long before she would find herself grabbing up her son and fleeing to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod. Of course, this was just the beginning, there was much more to come, but nothing could have prepared her for this.

I want to talk to you today about the call of motherhood, because those of you who are mothers are tough because you have got to be. You are strong because it was necessary; you had to roll up your sleeves and break a sweat. There are those of you here who know what it is like to be a real mother, because you have been up all night, taking care of a sick child, and yet you still had to go to work in the morning. And so, you know the sacrifices that you have had to make, you understand that being a mother is a call to sacrifice, but many of you were totally unprepared for it because it’s hard to explain to a young mother the many challenges and struggles along the way.

Sometimes my wife and I go out to dinner and we look at one another across the table and don’t know whether to laugh or to cry because we have survived so much. We have children that have grown up, we have grandchildren, but there is still so much more because we are almost through adolescence again. And so, it’s like we’ve almost made it, maybe were going to make it, but you just wonder because parenting is not easy. It’s not easy when they’ve got an attitude, when they lie about you, or when they tell you they hate you.

That’s why it’s so important to have friends who will come alongside of you and help you. Someone who will hang with you in the hard times, someone you can count on to be there when things get really bad. Someone you can call when all hell is breaking loose and you don’t know what to do. You need someone who’s got your back, someone like Jesus’ mother’s friends, her sister Salome, her sister-in-law Mary, and Mary Magdalene. They were those kinds of friends because the Bible tells us,

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister (Salome), Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25).

Aren’t you thankful for those people that are there when you need them?

They are important because when you get into trouble there are very few people who will hang with you all the way to the end. There are people who will be with you when Jesus is turning water into wine, when he’s walking on water, but there are only a few people standing there when he’s on the cross.

And yet, Simeon had prophesied to Mary that she was going to face dark and painful days. And I wonder if when he said, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also" if she wasn’t thinking about the words of the angel (Luke 2:35, ESV). You know, Gabriel, where is he now, he told me I would bring forth a son, and he would save his people from their sins. And so, I thought he would be a mighty conqueror, a mighty king, for even the Magi said he would be a king, but this she hadn’t expected.

Gabriel hadn’t told her that her son would be hated, beaten, and disfigured, but that’s what Isaiah meant when he said,

“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:2-3, ESV).

That’s why you’ve got to be careful interpreting prophecy, even the prophets made careful search and investigation, but prophecy doesn’t give you all the details, it only gives you the highlights. And so, they will tell you about the king, but they don’t tell you about the cross, and yet every crown has a cross.

Meanwhile, “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, ESV). Only to discover that her son would be such a controversial figure, dividing people and families, that he would suffer many things. He would be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law; nailed to an old rugged cross, and it makes me wonder what she was thinking as she stood there looking at Jesus. I wonder if as she looked at him hanging high, if she remembered what it felt like when his little feet were kicking inside of her stomach and keeping her up at night.

I wonder what she was thinking as she looked at his feet nailed to the cross, if maybe she remembered when Joseph was trying to teach Jesus how to hammer in a nail, and now the carpenter’s son himself is nailed to a wooden cross. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother Mary looking at something that no mother would ever want to see and the Bible tells us,

“When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments… to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (John 19:23-24, ESV).

“So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:24-25, ESV).

I wonder what was going through her mind now that everybody else was gone, and she is just standing there with a few others who were grieving?

Maybe there are some of you who are reminded on this Mother’s Day of the things that you had to watch your child suffer through?

Mary is watching, she is near the cross, standing at the feet of Jesus as he is agonizing, laboring, his body heaving with excruciating pain as he is gasping for breath. His suffering is not just from the pain of his wounds, his suffering was more than just physical, because he experienced the full range of human suffering. He had experienced the agony of betrayal as Judas turned him over to the authorities, betraying him with a kiss, and so they laid hands on Jesus and seized him (Matthew 26:50, ESV).

At that moment, the great liberator was seized, he was taken captive, and the faithful one was deserted by those closest to him. Matthew tells us,

“All the disciples left him and fled” (Matthew 26:56, ESV).

And so, Jesus was abandoned and forsaken, falsely accused, abused and rejected and yet with full knowledge of this bitter cup he submitted himself to the will of the Father.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV).

I am sure that at this moment his mother wanted to look away, but she couldn’t turn away from Jesus, because she wouldn’t leave him alone now.

To you and me, Jesus is the Lamb of God, he is our Rock, our Cornerstone, our Salvation, or as Thomas said,

"My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28, ESV).

But to Mary, this is her baby, this is her child, this is her son.

The Bible says, that then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46, ESV).

With that Mary’s knees gave out as she fell to the ground with a cry of distress. The sky grew dark in the ground trembled, the graves of those who believed were opened, and the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom.

“When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54, ESV).

On this Mother’s Day, I want to talk to those who feel like you are all alone, like everybody has forsaken you, because everyone you love either dies or walks away and you don’t know what to do. This morning, I want to encourage you to do what Mary did, to draw near to Jesus, to remain faithful at the cross. You see, even in the moment of her greatest sorrow, instead of getting angry and walking away from God, she pressed into her faith and she drew near.

In fact, she continued to press in and serve God through the pain, she continued gathering with the other believers, and she is there the next day, and the next day, and on Sunday, and on the Sunday after that. The Bible says,

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14, ESV).

In other words, she is still there, she is still praying with the others, she is still telling them about Jesus, and reminding them of the things that he taught. She is still there, still standing there, still faithful, praising him with tears running down her face, because she knows that if she doesn’t praise him, if she were to remain silent,

"The very stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40, ESV).

Mary’s example of praise is so important, because if you only praise God when things are going well, you don’t really have a praise at all because God wants a sacrifice of praise. In other words, he wants our praise in all things, and so the Spirit says,

“Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name… for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:15-16, ESV).

And as we praise him, not only are we getting revelation, not only are we breaking strongholds, yokes are being broken in our lives, but even the demons are trembling because God is enthroned on the praises of his people.

Mary had been completely unprepared for all of this when she had that first encounter with the angel Gabriel, but now she wasn’t seeing things from the perspective of a young virgin, now her face is wrinkled, her hair is sprinkled with silver, and life has shown her a lot of things. There are so many experiences that she really could have done without, things she really didn’t need to see, but regardless she remained firm in the faith. She persevered through it all knowing that God was going to make it up to her.

I love that the Bible specifically includes Mary among those gathered in the upper room. “All these were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14, ESV). In other words, Mary was there in the upper room when the Holy Spirit fell, there was a blowing of a violent wind, and there was what seemed to be tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them. Can you imagine the joy of Jesus’ mother’s sanctified praise? As the psalmist said,

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them” (Psalms 126:2, ESV).

And so, picture this in your mind, Mary is there in the upper room when the Holy Spirit fell with power. Suddenly she is clutching her stomach again, experiencing the joy of motherhood, speaking in tongues, declaring the glory of God,

“As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within” (John 7:38, NIV).

In other words, she’s got Jesus back, she’s got her baby back, and for the rest of her life, Jesus who had been with her, is now dwelling within her. That’s what he promised,

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18, ESV).

And so, as we close, we stand here today and praise him even when it hurts, even with tears running down our faces, we will still give God our praise because we still got our faith. We still got Jesus, as the Scripture says,

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27, ESV).

And so, let’s give him our praise!

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.